31-Aug-2001
Title: 'Nowaru' (Fifty billion points to anyone who can tell me what that means!)
Author: Ryan Harbin
Warnings: AU, weirdness, shounen ai
Pairings: 1+2
Archive: GWA
Date begun: August 10, 2001
Date Finished (part one): August 30, 2001
Suggested ristening: Either the Noir opening or ending will suffice. But I'd highly recommend 'Canta Per Me.' That song is nearly enough to make me cry.
I've taken Duo's style or dress straight from Tenshi Kinryouku... Setsuna gets some great outfits in later volumes... EVERYONE wears platforms in it... O.O
Pre-notes: This is au... Presume Duo's about 19, while Heero's 16.
His search led him to a school, a stereotypically picturesque building of simple architecture, wide path leading to the door bracketed by double columns of shielding sakura, pink petals fluttering in a light breeze. The ground was well beaten, here and there a footprint still pressed into the dirt, to remain until it was trampled away by hundreds of similar feet, wearing regulation shoes with the uniforms, skirts and jackets caught and twisted by the same wind that tangled hair and ruffled the sakura.
Duo Maxwell observed all this, discarded it as useless. School would be out soon, crowds of eager students rushing home to do homework or saying lingering goodbyes. Eyeing his watch, his foot tapped out the rhythm of the ticking seconds. Three... two... One...
Exactly on cue, the first students pushed open the doors, streaming into the courtyard with cheerful expressions scrawled across their fresh faces. He frowned at the sight, unable to recall a time when he'd been that carefree and obviously happy.
It was only for a few seconds that he had to hastily scan the faces of the uniformed students before his keen eyes landed on one that stuck out. Not entirely for physical reasons, for he was just as short as the other students, plodding slowly among the sea of navy blue and plaid. Yet it was hard to look away, both for an uncommon beauty not at all shielded by his obviously introverted stance, but also for that stance itself, the wild jungle cat grace that led his every movement into a sort of dance. Yes, this had to be the one he was here for. There was something about him, maybe in the obvious training with which he moved, or the way he carefully assessed everything and everyone around him, that betrayed him as the only one who could have known where to search for Duo, what clues he should start with. The only one who could possibly have understood - or even guessed at - the significance of his short message, "Let's journey to the past together," and the accompanying music.
With a curt goodbye to a petite - hell, they were all petite, he stood out like a sore thumb here - blonde that called at him in a shrill voice, his quarry fairly floated through the school gates. Only once he was through the stucco wall did he pause, turning slowly in what Duo soon realized was surveillance. His head rotated straight past Duo, standing on the corner decked in his usual black. Not cold enough for a coat, but he was perfectly comfortable in a form fitting back shirt and black leather pants under his black knee-length boots, perfect for concealing a small handgun, their two-inch platform making him stand out even more among this entire race of tiny people.
Yet then, the boy's cold gaze swept right past, leaving Duo torn with suspicions that maybe he had picked the wrong high school student, and a little bit nonplussed that he'd warranted not even the tiniest of pauses.
But then the boy's head swept right to him, eyes he now found were a deep, piercing blue he imagined could see right through him targeting Duo as easily as he himself had first decided on his quarry. A significant second of mutual stares, then the boy turned and was striding away, feet making barely a sound on the pavement.
Duo blinked before starting quickly after the blue-eyed boy, all doubts at his selection dispelled as surely as his disappointment at not being noticed. Although he was more than a little unnerved by this new prey, obviously of a totally different caliber than any he'd ever killed before.
He trailed the boy for about twenty more minutes - no mean feat, as it seemed half the people crowding the streets wore school uniforms similar or identical to the cold-eyed schoolboy. But then he was halted at an intersection, watching the back of a shaggy brown head bob away in momentary glimpses between cars. However, they'd traveled into a much worse part of town, and there were very few fellow pedestrians to get in his way. As soon as he had a few seconds leeway, he dashed right over the crosswalk, ignoring the horns of a few enraged drivers.
Boots pounding evenly on the sidewalk, he swiftly approached the end of that particular thoroughfare, which dead ended into a construction site, the shadows of bare girders and pipes seeming to make a bizarre skeleton on the road.
He skidded around a corner, head swiveling wildly to ascertain where the strange boy had disappeared to - but no search was needed.
There he stood, back to Duo, hands limp by his side, head bowed listlessly. He didn't speak.
"Dare da kisama?" Duo demanded, hoping his Japanese wasn't as rusty as he thought.
No answer. Just a slight twitch of the right hand, an abrupt click -
And then he heard it. A slow, haunting melody, nothing more than a tiny metal musicbox in the back of a windup watch, but it wasn't the music that commanded his immediate attention and drew the color from his flushed cheeks.
"Where did you get that?" he asked in a harsh whisper that grated in his throat.
Still nothing. Duo took a step closer -
And then the boy was gone, darting into the shadow of unfinished walls and temporary stairs. Duo cursed, followed, tracing the boy's nimble path through the treacherous building. He was led several flight of metal stairs, footsteps clanging, through a tangled maze of wires and pipes.
Finally he saw him again, seated calmly on a metal beam suspended haphazardly off the side of the building, held in check by thick ropes. His legs dangled off the side, swaying in the wind that whipped both his and Duo's hair into a stinging frenzy. And the small, silver watch was cradled in his hand, chiming, familiar tones carried to Duo's ears.
"Omae..." Duo's voice trailed off uncertainly, his brain failing to provide with a sufficiently sensible inquiry.
"Kita." The boy's whisper was heard only because of its chariot of wind, a cryptic warning with no subject.
"Eh? Na -"
But then he didn't need to ask, as the first bullets struck near his right foot. He flung himself back, drawing his gun as he tucked into a backward somersault, launching himself quickly back to his feet. As he ran he followed the shots back to their source, able to worry for the boy's safety only a brief instant.
Four of them, dark suits with matching white shirts and black sunglasses, none with any visible firearm. Yet their positions as they advanced showed obvious martial arts training, so perhaps they felt no need for such coarse weapons. He smiled grimly, then attacked.
All four were down within a few seconds, groaning and incapacitated or unconscious, it didn't matter. He left them, stalking silently through his now eerie surroundings for any trace of others. He knew there were others, could feel their presence tickling the back of his mind.
There was one, not ten feet away as he flitted around a corner, back turned but hands hung empty by black pants.
"Oi!" he called, training his gun on the man's head.
He turned slowly, perhaps aware of the danger in moving with too much speed in front a person jumpy and coursing with adrenaline. At least, that was how most people would be in Duo's situation, but he kept the calm he'd been trained expertly to maintain, voice and movements steady as he advanced to the still man.
Six feet away... Five... Four -
Two came at him swiftly, knocking him down and sending the gun skittering before he had a chance to squeeze off even one shot. They watched him passively, comfortable in their obvious control, letting him rise slowly to his feet before stalling any further progress toward freedom by taking possession of his arms. That he could easily be rid of, but the gun aimed at his left eye was another matter.
The leader - for that was who the man he'd first seen seemed to be - opened his mouth as if to speak, but it was a stillborn gesture as something to his left clattered. All three jerked toward the sound -
And then it seemed Death was among them, Death trapped in the small form of a Japanese schoolboy, who was rid of the two that had surprised Duo before he could blink. The leader dashed off, and the brown-haired boy was gone again before Duo could utter a syllable, before the bodies of the two men hit the floor in crumpled, awkward heaps.
It took only a moment to know that the pair on the unfinished metal were dead, and Duo swallowed before sprinting in pursuit of the leader and his first shadow.
There was no sign of the boy, but he caught up with the large, black-suited man within ten seconds, was only ten feet away when a tiny figure fell from above, legs wound and wrenching the man's neck. In another nanosecond it was over, a sick, familiar crack heralding the man's slow collapse, a slight body landing catlike next to the black, soulless puddle. Another swift movement had him standing, though slightly bent at the shoulders.
He turned to face Duo, deep blue eyes anguished. Once again, his voice came in a halting whisper.
"Why? Why is it that I feel nothing? I kill so easily... So quickly. Why do I not feel remorse?" Duo noticed the clenched fists, bottom lip whitened by the sharp pressure of teeth, and the boy turned his tortured face down to the dead man in the nondescript suit.
"Who are you?" was all Duo could manage.
A tiny, halting murmur. "Wa - wakaranai."[1]
Tsuzukuuuu!!!
Note:
1. 'Wakaranai' means 'I don't remember.'
After notes:
I know this was a bit choppy, what with all the sudden new paragraphs and whatnot... *shrug*
I am such a character glorifier... XD Just look at the fourth paragraph, for god's sake! *sigh*
Fifty billion more points to anyone who can tell me what this is crossed over with!
I proclaim myself the comma queen. And I wrote all but about the first paragraph of this today.
Ryan Harbin
Please send comments to: rioroute_vilgyna@yahoo.com